This fast-moving novel spotlights a smart woman's journey to find what she wants.
A woman with clear focus and ambitious career aspirations has a tough struggle to acknowledge the man she really loves.
Mikaela Marchand was a Black girl—now Black woman—with lofty goals. She’d been planning her departure from small-town Georgia all her life. She and her friend Julie Robertson, who’s White, went through grade school as besties; Julie, “bubbly, wholesome, ridiculously pretty,” and Mikaela with her “witheringly incisive gaze.” A senior prank in which they streaked across their high school football field landed them in the slammer just long enough for Mikaela to be booked by Cameron, a tall, lanky, impossibly good-looking White boy working his way through school. A romance ensues with this budding photographer, but Mikaela leaves Cameron for college and law school in the Big Apple. She’s just short of making partner in a fancy New York law firm and living with Rashad, a handsome Black pediatric resident, when her past comes back with the ferocity of a windstorm. This debut novel addresses what it's like to grow up with absent and deceased parents as well as the pressure on Black professionals to overperform while conforming to White norms. The harsh realities of Julie and Mikaela’s fractured friendship, Mikaela’s fraught relationship with her mother, and Mikaela’s inability to see Cameron for who he is are all developed with skill and empathy. Mikaela’s sister, Vanessa, pokes fun at her, providing pitch-perfect humor. Most of all, Mikaela travels a long road to stop hiding from her own emotions and needs. If the novel feels like it could have been shorter, with multiple moments that could have been stopping points, the payoff is the steamy sex, saved for the end.
This fast-moving novel spotlights a smart woman's journey to find what she wants.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-335-44882-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HQN
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
A thrilling, immersive tale that shows that some bargains demand more than just a crown.
A reluctant princess is thrust into deadly political intrigue in Perry’s sweeping, high-stakes romantasy.
Odessa is the overlooked and underestimated princess of Quentis, whose life takes an unexpected turn when a deal is struck between her father and the formidable Turan warriors force her into an arranged marriage with their enigmatic prince, Zavier Wolfe. Intended as a mere formality to secure trade routes and military alliances, the betrothal spirals into something far more dangerous when ancient magic, a ruthless Guardian, and a looming war threaten to upend everything she knows. Finally emerging from the shadow of her seemingly perfect half sister, Mae, Odessa must navigate court politics, monstrous creatures, and her own uncertain place in a world where survival often depends on strategy rather than strength. As tensions rise, she finds herself entangled with the dangerous, enigmatic Guardian—a man whose silver eyes hold secrets of their own. Perry’s worldbuilding is lush and immersive, crafting a kingdom rife with old magic, deadly beasts, and political machinations that add depth. The pacing is relentless, carrying Odessa from one life-altering event to another as she grapples with duty, defiance, and a destiny she never chose. Her internal conflict is compelling, torn between the expectations placed upon her and the fierce independence that threatens to make her an outcast in her own kingdom. Romance simmers as Odessa struggles to reconcile her obligations with her growing attraction to the Guardian, whose past is as shadowed as his reputation. Mae is introduced as Odessa’s political foil, and although her presence drives much of Odessa’s internal drama—being constantly overshadowed or underestimated—she’s mostly seen through Odessa’s perspective. Her motivations, ambitions, and political maneuverings might have benefited from deeper exploration to give more nuance to the power dynamics. However, Perry’s evocative prose and intricate plotting make for a gripping tale. Readers looking for a slow-burn romantasy with rich political intrigue and a protagonist forced to create her own fate will find much to enjoy.
A thrilling, immersive tale that shows that some bargains demand more than just a crown.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781649378514
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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